Movin' Right Along

With each passing day Ian grows a little more independent. He has truly discovered why it’s so cool that he can crawl. This past week he has started venturing out into other rooms of the house. He wants to explore, open cupboards, and take things out. For us this means that the game has changed, yet again. So Ian is helping us learn the new rules. Also, it seems like every few days he starts the process of cutting a new tooth. All in all Ian is an absolute delight. He laughs and smiles easily and has great balance. We think he’ll take after mom and be skateboarding by the time he’s four.

Here in Houston it is absolutely soggy! We had a brief reprieve from the rain over the weekend but then the rain returned in full force. So basically Roxy is totally shack whacky because I haven’t been able to get her out for a walk. Still we love it here and are enjoying the novelty of this experience.

Matt and I are still enjoying budgeting together. We’ve learned that we make about $500 less per month than we did as students both working. We couldn’t figure out why things seemed tighter even though we were spending far less than we used to. Bingo!! Duh! Even though we feel greatly blessed and very wealthy. We both feel like we have everything we ever wanted and we lack for nothing. We truly feel rich.

Still the realities of our income vs. expenses pose some wonderful challenges, even opportunities. How can we reduce our expenditures and save money? Well, we’ve looked at our gift budget and decided we could be more creative. So, “Family, you can look forward to some pretty nice home made creations and bargain buys!” Also, there’s thing like yogurt and croutons, which I’ve decided that I can add to our repertoire of home made goods.

I made home made yogurt from organic whole milk this past week. It rocks! It’s way better than any yogurt I’ve ever purchased. Ian loves it. I am going to buy 2% milk and start making it for the whole family. This brings the cost of our yogurt down to like .30¢ per 6 oz. as opposed to 90¢ for good organic yogurt. And then I mix in some home made jam or other fruit into the yogurt and it’s so sweet and delicious. You don’t even need an incubator to make yogurt. But lucky me, my Mom bought me one a while back. If I can just perfect the art of boiling milk then I’ll be good to go.

If I can think of any other money saving or procuring tips I’ll pass them along. Until next time...be happy and have fun!